Welcome to Three Questions with Van Heerling. This is where you get to meet authors, actors, painters and anyone else that is bent toward the arts, but on a more personal level.

Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Lisa Calell author of "Disconnected."

Let's jump in.

VH: If you could go back in time to when you were seven years old, what wisdom or advice would you pass on to your former self? LC: The use of the word ‘whatever’ is definitely over-rated and quite annoying. It should never be used when a child is talking to their parents. (as I am learning from my 11year old son). Never stop saying the first thing that comes into your head. The innocence of a child’s thoughts is a precious and valuable gift that we have all been given and sometimes we just need to connect with that child within. Never give up, never leave anything to chance and never ever stop believing in the magic of Christmas.

VH: At what age were you the happiest? How come? LC: I am happiest now. I thought turning 40 was going to be the worst thing ever to happen to me but to make the transition easier I created a ’40 list’ of things I needed to achieve before I got there. Writing a book was just one of many. I have achieved so much in the last year but the ‘icing on the cake’ was my Dad telling me how proud of me he was, something I have waited 40 years to hear.

VH: What is the number one lie you tell yourself? LC: There are no calories in any food consumed around Christmas – in fact I think it may even be negative calories!!!

VH: I agree, I just had a zero calorie piece of cake. It was delicious!

Thank you Lisa.

Disconnected Katherine (Katie) Calder is happy, or is she? Married to a patient, loving and handsome lawyer who has been her life for 6 years – Chris. He wants nothing more than a ‘normal’ happy family life -will being with Katie ever give him that? Katie didn’t know how to love him or anyone but she knew she couldn’t be without him. She had detached from life, from love, from any true emotion yet Chris continued to love her unconditionally wishing for the day she would declare her love and even cry for the first time since he had known her. Katie’s mother - Jill Williams was desperately trying to have a relationship with her daughter who had been missing from her life for six years for reasons she never understood. Bringing Gerry back into Katie’s life was not the answer. Gerry brought back the horror of her ‘missing years’ causing her distress, misery and even blackouts, but why, what had Gerry done? What had happened in those two years when she had been missing that could cause this pain and anguish and if they found out would they feel the same about her? Katie didn’t think so, she had to protect them against the truth and she had to face her past - but at what cost? Disconnected is an intense, emotional journey that will have you smiling one minute and then feeling hurt and pain the next. You want it to work out, you want the happy ending - but then life is never that straightforward, this book will leave you with a void, this book will leave you disconnected!

Lisa Calell was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, the youngest of three children. As a child, her appetite for Fiction and Poetry became evident from a very young age. Now married with two children of her own and has recently been through the trauma of turning '40', writing is her new passion. Disconnected is her first novel of a two-part series - the emotional heart-wrenching story of Katie and her quest for survival. Disconnected takes you through the horrors of her past, the uncertainties she faces day-to-day and her will to feel love with her one constant in her life - Chris. Within two weeks of publication, Disconnected hit #21 in Thrillers and #72 in Romance during an Amazon promotion. More recently, Disconnected reached #6 in Kindle and #1 best-seller in Psychological & Suspense and Family Saga.

I am reading Lisa's book now and find it to be very well written and researched. This author has a unique ability to capture your attention with a periodic dose of shock treatment that will send you over the edge---anxious to read her new book that is scheduled in February I read recently in a blog.